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PSA: Philips Coralcare


gus6464

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Just a heads up BRS TV is testing the crap out of the coralcare and releasing the video next week. Ryan prefaced it with "is it the holy grail or is it trash". He's never prefaced any lights like this so I'm thinking it's gonna be good.

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Looking forward to it :)

 

Lots of Luxeon diodes (including lots of Luxeon UV), etched glass cover, passive cooling? Sounds nice

 

Haha yeah just the cost of the Luxeon UV alone is probably what Ecotech pays for all the diodes on an XR30. No plastic on this thing. Just aluminum and glass.

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I am interested to see how it does in the US. A feel this is much more desired for LARGE tanks or coral farms. The going trend for many reefers are modern, sleek and tank mountable.

 

Still a great thing for a huge company to look into the reef world.

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I am interested to see how it does in the US. A feel this is much more desired for LARGE tanks or coral farms. The going trend for many reefers are modern, sleek and tank mountable.

 

Still a great thing for a huge company to look into the reef world.

 

This light definitely has a European design. EU reefers seem to prefer the blanket of diodes vs pucks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well the video is out and BRS did an insanely thorough job testing it. It's not a pretty light but in actual performance there has never been anything like it.

 

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reminds me of the LupyLED that is attempting to come in the market as well....but not as clean looking.

 

Damn that looks slick as hell. I have to wonder if the market version will be as nice. Or how loud its going to be forcing air through there.

 

 

 

As to the coralcare, I've been thinking about putting a frosted glass/acrylic panel over my lights for a while, so I'm glad to have confirmation that its a viable move. For the coralcare itself, I think the weight is going to be the killer for most people, 22lbs is no joke. Course that the price you pay for all passive cooling. Wonder if they'd have been better off going for a smaller heatsink and a fan or two.

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Damn that looks slick as hell. I have to wonder if the market version will be as nice. Or how loud its going to be forcing air through there.

 

 

 

As to the coralcare, I've been thinking about putting a frosted glass/acrylic panel over my lights for a while, so I'm glad to have confirmation that its a viable move. For the coralcare itself, I think the weight is going to be the killer for most people, 22lbs is no joke. Course that the price you pay for all passive cooling. Wonder if they'd have been better off going for a smaller heatsink and a fan or two.

 

Then it wouldn't be IP65 rated. Also 22lbs is nothing. My ATI Powermodule weighs that much.

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Interesting review, and well done for not having time to test it on corals.

 

The shimmer tests were awesome, and perhaps why a lot of LED fixtures with lenses fail.

 

I would not have rated it as high. Certainly some great ideas, but what a big ugly over priced and under-efficient piece of ... light.

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Interesting review, and well done for not having time to test it on corals.

 

The shimmer tests were awesome, and perhaps why a lot of LED fixtures with lenses fail.

 

I would not have rated it as high. Certainly some great ideas, but what a big ugly over priced and under-efficient piece of ... light.

 

Overpriced? it has 100% Luxeon including Luxeon UV. There is nothing overpriced about this unit. Overpriced is everything else on the market. You realize the cost of the Luxeon UV diodes alone is the same than all the diodes in a Radion?

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I want to like this "new idea" in LED lighting, but not sure the "pros" outweigh the "cons"...

 

Pros?: simple to use (others have caught on to pre-sets though), color rendition (we think), diode quality, water-resistant, diffuser plate

 

Cons?: price (subjective, but it is only 200W's), weight, inefficient (vs. T-5?), no wireless tuning, appearance of the fixture (i.e. aesthetics)

 

 

Also, how "big a leap" is this really, especially since they simply used one of their currently-employed form factors (parking lots!), changed diodes within, added a diffuser (not all that original is it?), and used a simple control program? Many aquarium hobbyist are already aware that diffusers work, and the "disco" effect can be mitigated be keeping fixtures higher and removing lenses.

 

What am I missing?

 

Also, I don't care if the diodes used are all Luxeon (which I do like/ appreciate by the way) - they have not been proven to be any better than other diodes in terms of growing corals, or putting out heretofore unknown/ unobtainable spectra of light...


 

Overpriced? it has 100% Luxeon including Luxeon UV. There is nothing overpriced about this unit. Overpriced is everything else on the market. You realize the cost of the Luxeon UV diodes alone is the same than all the diodes in a Radion?

 

And yet Radions have been "proven" (do I need the quotes as there is at least one study, plus anecdotal experience of many hobbyists) to grow corals quite well...

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Funny how a Radion which casts insane shadows and costs the same is the holy grail with it's cheap diodes and plastic construction. This light is obviously not for the ones who have the Apple mentality which ecotech caters to.

 

This light will probably never make it to the US and that's fine since US reefers prefer their shiny crap. A radion is not even in the league of a Nanobox when it comes to design and construction and Dave is a one man show. Sorry to burst your bubble but Cree is good at being cheap and decent, nothing more than that.

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Overpriced? it has 100% Luxeon including Luxeon UV. There is nothing overpriced about this unit. Overpriced is everything else on the market. You realize the cost of the Luxeon UV diodes alone is the same than all the diodes in a Radion?

 

I really don't care how much some LED I never heard of costs. Did they even price the unit? Not sure what I meant by overpriced. It needs to out perform T5 or T5 hybrid else there's nothing here of value to the regular reefer. The next big step is T5 performance without any T5's. That's the holy grail. Is it spectrum, is it shimmer, is it PAR variance, is it coverage, is it something else? Long term tests with published results is the only thing that will tell us.

 

^ I'm talking acropora here, nothing else.

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I really don't care how much some LED I never heard of costs. Did they even price the unit? Not sure what I meant by overpriced. It needs to out perform T5 or T5 hybrid else there's nothing here of value to the regular reefer. The next big step is T5 performance without any T5's. That's the holy grail. Is it spectrum, is it shimmer, is it PAR variance, is it coverage, is it something else? Long term tests with published results is the only thing that will tell us.

 

^ I'm talking acropora here, nothing else.

 

Did you even watch the video? It has the exact same PAR and spread map of an ATI Sunpower 8 bulb.

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Funny how a Radion which casts insane shadows and costs the same is the holy grail with it's cheap diodes and plastic construction. This light is obviously not for the ones who have the Apple mentality which ecotech caters to.

 

This light will probably never make it to the US and that's fine since US reefers prefer their shiny crap. A radion is not even in the league of a Nanobox when it comes to design and construction and Dave is a one man show. Sorry to burst your bubble but Cree is good at being cheap and decent, nothing more than that.

 

1. We don't know yet how much it will cost, but possibly more than a Radion Pro Gen 4 ($800 vs $1000?).

 

2. All light cast shadows, even MH and T-5 - see my earlier point about height and lenses, and not all aquarists like the "flatness" of T-5 lighting (including me).

 

3. Radions are not really all that cheaply made - you do realize it has a heatsink under said plastic?

 

4. Again, diode cost has no bearing on ability to grow coral. Longevity and efficiency are valuable, but not everything - spectrum is.

 

5. It is silly to say that a Radion cannot hold a candle to a NanoBox light - I own and use both (Gen 3 Pro Radion and V.2 NB Duo), and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

 

6. I actually like and use several fixtures since I have several aquariums going (and several others over the years), so I am not an apologist for EcoTech, and hence no bubble to be burst... omgomgomg

 

7. I don't own anything Apple, and I am unsure of the analogy - you keep pointing out the inherent value of Luxeon diodes over "cheap" Cree diodes like they are "unobtainium"...

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Did you even watch the video? It has the exact same PAR and spread map of an ATI Sunpower 8 bulb.

 

Go #### yourself Gus. I'm so tired of some of the punks on here. Yes I watched the video, do you have a point or are you claiming that if all the numbers match up it will be awesome? It uses the same power and produces nearly the same PAR as that 24" ATI unit. I know the 24" ATI unit will grow and color acropora, will this light?

 

If so the only savings is bulb price.

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Go #### yourself Gus. I'm so tired of some of the punks on here. Yes I watched the video, do you have a point or are you claiming that if all the numbers match up it will be awesome? It uses the same power and produces nearly the same PAR as that 24" ATI unit. I know the 24" ATI unit will grow and color acropora, will this light?

 

If so the only savings is bulb price.

 

 

Hahaha. That's rich coming from someone who switched over to a nanobox ATI retro and now claims to own the best light ever. If LEDs suck so much then why not just keep your Sunpower and do only T5? You have no clue of the cost of the unit yet you claim it's overpriced.

 

You spout random crap while knowing nothing about specifics of the light yet I am the punk?

 

I have been talking to Luc Vogels who is the main engineer behind the light for weeks and he facilitated me being able to order one from the Netherlands. Spoiler alert, it cost me less than a Radion G4 Pro shipped to my door with the controller.

 

You are the perfect example of the elitist bullshit all over this hobby. Every time someone comes along and tries something totally new here comes along the bullshit parade shitting all over it.

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Hahaha. That's rich coming from someone who switched over to a nanobox ATI retro and now claims to own the best light ever. If LEDs suck so much then why not just keep your Sunpower and do only T5? You have no clue of the cost of the unit yet you claim it's overpriced.

 

You spout random crap while knowing nothing about specifics of the light yet I am the punk?

 

I have been talking to Luc Vogels who is the main engineer behind the light for weeks and he facilitated me being able to order one from the Netherlands. Spoiler alert, it cost me less than a Radion G4 Pro shipped to my door with the controller.

 

You are the perfect example of the elitist bullshit all over this hobby. Every time someone comes along and tries something totally new here comes along the bullshit parade shitting all over it.

 

Ok then. :rolleyes:

 

Stop being an ass Gus. You have called people who like Echotech names, and defended the light as if you have a personal stake in it. I gave an opinion, you questioned if I watched the video.

 

And if you didn't ready my post, I said it was ugly and I wanted to see how it performs. You're building an SPS tank with it ... the quickest way to shut my ass up is to grow acros that look awesome under this light with no T5 supplementation. I do wish you luck, some day some LED light is going to do it and it won't matter how 'ugly' it is. Right now, IMO, the Nanobox units come the closest with NanoBox hybrids producing some of the best lighting in the industry. That's my opinion.

 

As you know there's a hell of a lot more to SPS than the lighting.

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Ok then. :rolleyes:

 

Stop being an ass Gus. You have called people who like Echotech names, and defended the light as if you have a personal stake in it. I gave an opinion, you questioned if I watched the video.

 

And if you didn't ready my post, I said it was ugly and I wanted to see how it performs. You're building an SPS tank with it ... the quickest way to shut my ass up is to grow acros that look awesome under this light with no T5 supplementation. I do wish you luck, some day some LED light is going to do it and it won't matter how 'ugly' it is. Right now, IMO, the Nanobox units come the closest with NanoBox hybrids producing some of the best lighting in the industry. That's my opinion.

 

As you know there's a hell of a lot more to SPS than the lighting.

 

I get it you are the Acro master around these parts. If stuff doesn't look as good as yours with your methods it's shit. I am in this hobby to try new things, not to grow the fanciest looking acro and gloat about it. I am trying a wet/dry config with my bio after talking to Jack Kent at MACNA because he said some pretty interesting things and that kind of setup is uncommon. I don't give a #### about having expensive sticks with fancy colors. I want to automate as much as I can to see if hands off approach with SPS works.

 

I was excited about this light the second it was announced because it wasn't the same old shit which is all people really care about in this hobby. Ecotech comes out with a dome optic which have existed for years and available with Kessil cans yet it's the best light ever and everything else before it is shit. On an $800 light which doesn't even have the decency to include something better than a $10 cheap Chinese power supply.

 

The spread and PAR map of a single Radion G4 Pro is shit if you want to grow SPS in a 24" cube. You need two units and that's not negotiable. We have people on here asking about what light they should buy for their tanks and people go and tell them that a single Prime HD is more than enough for a tank that is 24" long. These people then go out and spend the money only to come back 6 months later complaining that they are having issues with corals not under the light. Now they are pissed that the same people tell them go buy a second light even though they were assured the Prime was enough. Yet I am the ####### asshole for telling the guy to not listen to them and to not buy the Prime and go with something larger.

 

I have owned a Radion and it's a shit light. It's cheap parts wrapped in shiny plastic. The cooling on it sucks as the unit gets hot as hell when running past 50% and you can hear the tiny fan trying it's hardest to keep the thermals within range.

 

Dave's pucks are so good because he uses quality diodes. Cree have absolute shit binning. Good luck trying to get consistent batches. Some people are experiencing a color difference with their Hydra HD's with two units not looking the same across the same setting. That's called inconsistent shit binning by Cree. This is why lights that use Luxeon cost more than the Cree ones. You are paying for consistent quality from Lumileds.

 

Did I say the light was pretty? I even prefaced that it wasn't when I posted the video. Now people are complaining about a 20lb light. My ATI 8 bulb Powermodule weighs 20lbs as well but no one complains about that. The coralcare unit is passively cooled so it's a needs a massive heatsink. It's called proper engineering. Also the leds are only ran at max 700ma so the thermal efficiency doesn't go to absolute shit unlike Crees on Radions which are pushed as high as 1.5a where efficiency just goes out the window.

 

You complain about electricity usage. The whole leds use less electricity and provide the same light crap is something that was pushed by the first LED aquarium manufacturers so they could put as little amount of LEDs as possible on their units. Sure you are using less power but your coverage is now absolute crap. But hey you can fix that coverage by buying two units!

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Gus,

 

you are writing a lot, why? I am not the acro master, far far from it. I document my screw ups, my recoveries, and what works for me.

 

I sincerely hope you are not getting the light for a discount in return for a review, an unbiased opinion would be helpful. I hide my lights behind a hanging hood so I don't care what the light looks like, but I still think it's ugly AND I think it's accurate to say it's inefficient. In my opinion an LED light that uses the same power as T5 to produce the same PAR is not more efficient. Why does this bug you so much? Why do you think I don't think or want this light to work? On my hybrid I have to replace the bulbs 1.5 times a year for $100 (for 4). Not having to do that would save money, but not a lot. You would certainly save a lot of money replacing a 24x8 T5 with this light.

 

Year by year the original claims of LED saving us tons of money is proving to be false for some types of tanks. BRS has covered this in detail and some of us know this or have experienced it. They also covered how awesome the spread of this new light is and the stability of the spectrum and shimmer PAR. I said I thought that was awesome.

 

Anyway you get the last word, I'm still puzzled at the anger to other peoples opinion, me especially. You are treating me as if I said things I didn't say.

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The spread and PAR map of a single Radion G4 Pro is shit if you want to grow SPS in a 24" cube. You need two units and that's not negotiable.

 

I have owned a Radion and it's a shit light. It's cheap parts wrapped in shiny plastic. The cooling on it sucks as the unit gets hot as hell when running past 50% and you can hear the tiny fan trying it's hardest to keep the thermals within range.

 

See, when you post BS like this it makes it hard to take you seriously as being an unbiased arbiter of facts.

 

You do know that other aquarists have done exactly that - grown SPS corals in a 60g cube (or other approximately-sized aquarium) with a single Radion? There are many different species of SPS corals, with many different morphologies, and the aquascaping of the aquarium is an important consideration. Light is also only one of several factors important to stony coral growth, so anecdotal experience is just that - anecdotal. Again, as I have already mentioned, height of the fixture plays a huge role with spread too!

 

You keep claiming how terrible the Radion is, because it has a plastic shell, uses a number of Cree diodes, and is near the higher end of typical lighting costs - you fail to mention how well it can grow corals when properly situated and programmed. Bashing a known-quantity like this without other "facts" makes it seem like you have an agenda, which Mark has noted is a concern.

 

Hell, take a look over on RC in the lighting subforum (since you have a thread there about this light too) and take a look at the thread "My last questions on lights for my tank" - o2manyfish's 400g reef lit by 8 Radions is noted for "evidence" of their ability to grow corals of all types. Dave also notes what happens many times in these lighting threads - Several people on this thread are posting lots of negative things. But let's see their tanks. Everyone has an opinion in this hobby, and on these boards alot of those opinions are just regurgitated from some other post.

Dave B

 

Also, I have to wonder how much experience you actually have had with the Radion - I have one running over my 50g cube (no SPS, just a bunch of gorgonians and rock nems), and it maxes out at 60% at its peak - the highest casing temp it gets is 80 degrees F. when under the "natural deep reef" setting. I have had it running under this setting for several months with no issues - no fan noise, no overheating (check my lighting equipment regularly with one of several thermal "guns"), no nothing.

 

And before you accuse me of being a "fanboy" of Ecotech - my favorite lights are my Maxspect Razors over my pair of 40B's... :happy:

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I am far from a shill for this light. I paid full retail for the thing plus shipping which was not cheap since its coming from the Netherlands. I had to convince Luc to sell me the light and I ran a dedicated 220v circuit to my office to power the thing. There are people in this forum that get free stuff all the time, I am not one of them.

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Marc.The.Shark

 

 

Many aquarium hobbyist are already aware that diffusers work, and the "disco" effect can be mitigated by keeping fixtures higher and removing lenses.

 

 

Agree fully. I won't make a light without a diffuser or buy one that I can't add one to. Best combo is no lenses, plus diffuser. Disco is dead!

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